


Good Girls Don't Have Sister Complexes

by RaspberryHeaven



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: Aquours, F/F, First Kiss, Forbidden Love, Guilt, Jealousy, Love into romance, Protectiveness, Sister Complex, Sister-Sister Relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2016-10-16
Packaged: 2018-08-22 17:34:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8294213
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RaspberryHeaven/pseuds/RaspberryHeaven
Summary: “Why such a hurry, Dia? Do you have a date?”  Mari swung her long legs and peered into her friend’s face. “You do! You’re blushing! Why don’t I know about this?”“There’s nothing to know.” Dia cursed the heat creeping over her face and down her neck.“Don’t tell me it’s a forbidden romance. Is it a teacher? A married man? I know—assisted dating! Is our righteous and hard working student council president headed for a shocking scandal?”“Of course not!” Dia snatched up her books. “I just promised to help Ruby with her poise.”“Of course not!” Mari echoed, giggling. “No men for our  Dia and her little sister complex.” *  *  *Rated for more-than-sisterly feelings.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Kisuru](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kisuru/gifts).



The night Aquours came home from Tokyo, Ruby slept in Dia’s bed, her cheek cushioned on Dia’s shoulder.

Her face was still wet from crying, hair clinging to her cheeks and forehead. Dia shifted carefully, trying to relieve the pins and needles in her arm without disturbing Ruby, but couldn’t bring herself to ease out of the embrace. Poor sweetheart, finally comforted into going sweetly off to sleep in the cosiness of the cuddle. Dia tightened her arm around Ruby’s warm back, burning with frustrated protectiveness and tenderness and guilt at having let her sister be hurt.

She stroked the damp hair back from Ruby’s face with her free hand, and pressed a gentle kiss on her cheek. Her skin was so soft and the curve of her cheek so rounded that Dia had to repress the impulse to follow it with more kisses, just to feel that soft warmth under her lips. Ruby was so cute… It caused a familiar tugging the pit of Dia’s stomach.

Ruby moved slightly, muttered and sighed, and pressed her sleeping face between Dia’s breasts.

Dia stiffened. It was all right, she told herself. She was wearing pyjamas, and Ruby was only snuggled against fabric. It didn’t matter that under a thin layer Dia’s breasts were warming with embarrassment and she was excruciatingly conscious of the way her nightclothes brushed against her, Ruby’s breath making a warm patch.

All Ruby could feel was the flannel. If she could feel anything. She was asleep, after all. Drooling slightly, like a child.

Still, Ruby was a high school girl, not a child. Dia was nearly an adult. Perhaps it was time to give up sharing a bed on occasion. Just this one, last night, Ruby still needed her sister to hold her.

Dia lay awake, clasping her sister close, into the early hours of the morning.

* * *

“So are Aquors going to press on?”

Mari’s face was bright and merry, so much so that Dia wanted to shake the smile off it. As if Ruby’s pain hadn’t mattered, as f it was all just amusing gossip. Also, she was sitting on Dia’s desk, and Dia had student council work to do. Mari’s cuteness could only be pushed so far.

“I need to go,” Dia said, her voice tight.

“Why such a hurry, Dia? Do you have a date?” Mari swung her long legs and peered into her friend’s face. "You do! You’re blushing! Why don’t I know about this?”

“There’s nothing to know.” Dia cursed the heat creeping over her face and down her neck.

“Don’t tell me it’s a forbidden romance. Is it a teacher? A married man? I know—assisted dating! Is our righteous and hard working student council president headed for a shocking scandal?”

“Of course not!” Dia snatched up her books. “I just promised to help Ruby with her poise.”

“Of course not!” Mari echoed, giggling. “No men for our Dia and her little sister complex.”

“I do not have a little sister complex!” Dia turned, about to storm out of the room, and met Ruby’s scarlet face.

“Um… ah… we don’t have practice today, Chika seems to be… um…” Ruby twisted her fingers together, staring at the floor.

“Hi, Ruby-chan! We were just talking about you!” said Mari, her face full of sunshine. She slipped off the desk and bounced out of the room, pausing at the door. “Don’t work too hard, you two! Tell me all the juicy details.”

The two sisters were left in the room, unable to look at each other. Was that what it felt like to be Ruby all he time? Overwhelmed by the choice of words, by wondering what to say, unable to get anything out. Dia struggled to pull herself together. It was her job to put things back in order, heal the damage, protect Ruby. Make things proper and correct.

“Mari didn’t mean it. If she did mean it, she wouldn’t say it. If she really thought I was having an affair with a teacher, or assisted dating, or anything like that, she wouldn’t just blurt it out as a joke. She just likes to tease me… about you. It’s just the same.”

“Oh. Oh, um, yes. Of course.” Ruby lifted her eyes at last, melting, pleading eyes, and Dia had no idea how to read the message. 

Her own shoulders slumped in defeat. “Let’s go home and work on your presentation, okay?”

* * *

“I wish I was beautiful like you. You always seem so self-possessed—at least, around the people.” Ruby flashed her a sparkling look. “I look so silly, I can barely say a word to other people. Promotions are so hard.”

“Can you pretend you’re talking to Hanamaru? Or—or me? You never have trouble talking to me.”

“You and Hana-chan are different. I love you.”

“Yes. I —we love you too.” Dia turned hastily back to the computer. “Let’s review your old promo videos, okay?”

“Dia? Thank you—this means a lot to me. I know you didn’t want me to be a school idol—“

“I didn’t want you to be hurt.” Dia sighed. “But you _were_ hurt, and you are keeping on going. You’re tougher than you look, Ruby. I want to make this good for you.”

“Was it good for you, being a school idol?” Ruby twisted her fingers hesitantly.

Dia tapped the keyboard with her fingertips. “It was fine. But I want to talk about you. Let’s watch a video and look at the comments, okay?”

As luck would have it, the first video that came up was of the ridiculous Gothic lolita cosplay video. Dia watched it in silence, the cold rage creeping over her, shaking her. The littlest demon…

Ruby was watching her with wide, wary eyes. Dia tried to choke down her anger. 

“Shall we look at the comments, Dia?”

“Maybe not.”

“But why?” Ruby reached out and touched the screen. “These people, they seem it think I’m… cute.” She dropped her lashes. “Are they wrong? Don’t I look cute? I don’t understand why this makes you look so angry.”

“Of course you look cute! That’s the problem! You look so adorable, and so vulnerable, that no one could help but to want to hold and kiss and touch you, and you’re _my_ sister! I won’t have it!” Dia was on her feet, and shaking. “I’m sorry, Ruby. I have—I have a headache. We have do do this later tonight, when I’ve napped.”

She flung herself on her bed, and put her arms over her head.

“Can I bring you something?” Ruby asked, timidly. “Some tea?”

“No. I just need to rest.”

She felt fingertips brush her hair, then Ruby was gone and she was left alone with her aching, tumultuous thoughts.

* * *

By the time dinner was finished, Dia had collected herself.

“Let’s forget the videos for now. Ruby, why do you feel so shy when you perform?”

“I am afraid the people watching will hate me,” she said, with a simplicity that took Dia’s breath away.

“Hate you? Ruby, no one could hate you! You’re so sweet, and so cute, and—and—no one could hate you!”

Ruby simply fiddled with her skirt.

“Let’s look at it this way.” Dia went to her desk and only hesitated for a moment before opening the door, pushing some books aside, and pulling out her μ's fanzines. She had meant to throw them away, so often, along with the dreams they represented, yet here they were. Eli looked up at her from the cover: beautiful, serene, intelligent, competent. Nothing like the mess of nerves and self-suspicion Dia had become. Eli had a little sister she loved, too, who had become a school idol herself—and Eli would never feel her heart beat faster when she watched Alisa do a promo. She would simply help to the best of her ability.

Dia breathed deeply, pretending to herself that she was taking Eli’s calmness, her strength, her goodness, her normalcy, into herself.

“When—when I was trying to be a school idol, I sometimes pretended I was Eli to give myself confidence.” The confession, kept bitterly close to herself all this time, came out more easily than she would ever have thought, looking at Ruby’s expected gaze. “Is there a member of μ's you love the same way?”

Ruby bit her lip, adorably, kissably. Dia remembered Eli.

“Maybe… maybe Hanayo.” Ruby’s cheeks were really pink. “I’m not as pretty as she is…”

“You’re prettier! Hanayo is a good choice. She’s shy and gentle like you, but when she’s on stage that’s not a problem. She tries really hard, and smiles a lot, and she knows all about school idols, just like you! And her shyness just makes her really, really cute!” 

Ruby nodded happily. “And she really loves Rin! And Hanamaru identifies with Rin, so that makes Hanayo a really good choice for me!”

“Yes.” Dia’s voice was flat in her own ears. “Well, when you’re on stage or doing promos, can you remember that Hanayo is shy but she still shines just by being the way she is, and have confidence too?”

“I’ll try!” Ruby bounced across the room and hugged Dia in a flurry of pigtails. “Thank you, Dia! You’re the best!”

Dia managed to smile, waited until her sister left, and lay stiffly on the bed, unmoving and unthinking, until late in the night.

~*~

Being in the new version of Aquors was better than Dia could ever have dreamed. In the spotlight again, the music lifting her up, surrounded by her best beloved friends—and not just Mari and Kanan now, but all nine of them. Including Ruby. All those hours she had spent pouring over school idol materials with her sister, and now they were reaching for the same dreams together. Ruby was so transparently happy to be sharing this with her. Every day shone like the sun.

Dia pushed her fears down deep inside her, and concentrated on being the most perfect, disciplined school idol she could be. Eli would have been proud.

There was nothing wrong in noting how pretty Ruby looked in her idol outfits, how enchanting her shy smile and blushes were, how sweet her innocent voice. Sisterly pride was a completely normal, acceptable emotion.

She stopped by the library to pick Ruby and Hanamaru up for practice, but something made her hesitate. The two girls were talking seriously, heads close together, by one of the shelves, half hidden. They probably felt themselves unobserved. Dia knew that the honourable thing to do would be to back away.

She stayed, leaning against a desk, unable to look away. Ruby looked so intent, and she was speaking in a quick, passionate whisper. Dia couldn’t hear the words. After all, they were meant only for Hanamaru, who was equally grave, leaning in close.

There was a sick, sharp pounding in Dia’s ears. It looked like a confession. Well, these things happened at girls’ schools. Feelings of friendship were intense at that age. What might be scandalous for a real idol was perfectly acceptable as a passing crush. And Hanamaru had always been so kind to Ruby… It would turn naturally into just a deep friendship, as Hanamaru turned to boys…

Ruby lifted herself gracefully up on her tiptoes and brushed her lips against Hanamaru’s.

Dia lost her balance and her wait crashed against the table.

“Are you ready to go?” she said, brightly, as the girls turned, pink-faced, towards her.

Ruby nodded obediently, and Dia managed, somehow to talk about school to Hanamaru, as Ruby bobbed silently in their wake. Every word she said to Hanamaru hurt but, after all, a good big sister was supportive of her sister’s friends and, oddly, Hanamaru was Dia’s senior in Aquours, in a way. Even though Aquors had been hers first.

Even though Ruby had been hers first.

* * *

They were watching television together, and Ruby was leaning her head on Dia’s knee, and the warmth and pressure of it _hurt._ Perhaps the hurting was why Dia said,

“You love Hanamaru very much, don’t you?”

“Yes.” Dia couldn’t see her eyes. “She’s my best friend. Yoshiko, too. I’m so happy we’re all in Aquors together.”

“I’m glad. Just…” The words came out painfully, Dia hating herself for every word, jealousy forcing them out in any case. “Just don’t do anything you will regret later on?”

“I’m not doing anything wrong.”

“I know. You never would.” Because I’m the bad one.

“Dia, don’t you know?” Ruby’s voce was a whisper. ”I think bad things all the time.”

“Oh, Ruby, no. What would you think about that was bad? Eating too much ice-cream?” Dia tried to keep her voice strong, hearing the wobbling instead.

“Kissing.”

So, it _was_ Hanamaru. Dia managed to bring the words out. “Kissing isn’t wrong, Ruby.”

“Even if it’s someone you’re not supposed to be in love with? Hanamara says I am being silly and just getting confused, that’ crushes are things all girls go through before they were ready to be with boys, but I can’t stop thinking about it.”

Dia felt a rush of relief that Hanamaru did not reciprocate, followed by guilt. As if she wanted Ruby to be hurt…

“Ruby, if your feelings feel real, then they are,” she said, gently. “I can’t imagine anyone not loving you.”

Ruby lifted her head and rocked back on her heels, looking up at Dia with big, soft eyes. “Even you?” And Ruby pushed herself up onto her knees, flung her arms around Dia’s neck, and pressed her lips against her sister’s mouth.

Dia was petrified for just one moment, before her lips parted of their own accord and she was kissing, kissing, feeling Ruby’s lips gentle and eager beneath her own. She gained control and pushed away, only to see Ruby with her cheeks flushed and lips parted and a dazed look of passion in her eyes, so kissable, so irresistible…

Dia flung her arms tightly around her sister. “Oh, Ruby, what are we going to do?” Everything flashed before her—scandal, Aquours broken up, the school dissolved, her family broken, she and Ruby separated…

“I don’t know. But I love you. I know it’s wrong, but I can;’t help being happy. You’re everything to me.”

“I love you too, Ruby. You are—you are my life.” She kissed the soft hair, and vowed as she so often had, that Ruby would not be hurt. “We keep the secret.”

“Don’t push me away.”

I should, for everyone’s sake. “I won’t, I won’t.” She kissed her hair, her cheeks, her wet eyelids, her mouth. “I’ll protect you, Ruby. And love you. Always.” 

She felt her mouth twist. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so difficult, at least at first. Sisters were supposed to be devoted, right? 

“After all, that’s what big sisters are for.”

 

_~end~_


End file.
